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| Report: slaying suspect lacked mental- health care |
| By San Bernardino Sun |
| Published: 06/27/2005 |
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Confidential documents from the California Department of Corrections show the prisoner accused of killing a correctional officer at the California Institution for Men did not get adequate mental- health care while at the prison. Jon Christopher Blaylock, an inmate with an unspecified mental- health condition, is accused of killing Correctional Officer Manuel Gonzalez, who was stabbed to death at the prison Jan. 10. The revelation that Blaylock's mental condition was not properly addressed adds to the already long list of problems that contributed to Gonzalez's death, according to various accounts. The Department of Corrections recently crafted a corrective action plan outlining changes for CIM that are intended to clean up problems identified after the killing. The plan states that a critical investigative report on the killing found the prison had "failed to adequately address' Blaylock's mental illness. In March, the state's Office of Inspector General released a laundry list of issues at the prison that led to Gonzalez's killing. The report did not detail anything related to Blaylock's mental condition because inmates' medical records are confidential. However, the plan obtained by the Daily Bulletin, The Sun's sister newspaper, outlines the OIG's recommendations for improving mental- health care at the prison. Among those recommendations are: review policies that "hinder the timely and accurate diagnosis and treatment of inmates' and "use court procedures to compel mentally ill inmates to take their prescribed medications.' The plan does not state that those particular problems led to Gonzalez's death, and Deputy Inspector General Brett Morgan would not comment specifically on the findings related to Blaylock's mental condition. But he said the report's recommendations were created specifically in response to the killing. |
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